Turner Field

Part two in what could be an ongoing series:

For my trip to Atlanta, one of my friends picked up a few tickets to see the Braves take on the Mets. Turner Field made a good first impression - the tickets for the upper deck were on Tuesday two-for-one special, which put them at $4 a seat.

The upper deck seats also pleasantly surprised - although we were only a dozen or so rows below the top of the stadium above third base, the view was decent. We could see the whole field, and the stadium was built up enough it felt like we were looking down on the field, rather than out at it. It's enough of a distinction. I've sat in stadiums where the upper decks were pushed away from the field, and you felt like you were separated from the experience. Turner avoided that problem (although it still doesn't compare to Tiger Stadium, my gold standard for close-to-the-action upper deck seats).

The game was decent - an easy Braves win, but the lead was built up inning by inning, to keep people interested.
It wasn't a perfect day to watch a game - smoke in the air from Southern wildfires made my throat feel like I'd been swallowing sandpaper by the end. The overall experience at Turner, however, was pleasant.
The stadium is, like all the other stadiums built in the last 15 years or so, built on the Camden Yards neo-retro model. Lots of brick and green-painted steel. All nice, but there is only one feature of the ballpark that truely stands out and captures your attention. The center-field video screen scoreboard presented a sight to behold.
Apparently the high-definition screen was the largest in the world when it was installed, or at least is one of the largest you're going to find. The picture is about 80 feet tall and 80 feet wide, and unlike old-school video screens, the picture jumps out at you no matter what viewing angle you're at. (Well, I didn't sit directly in front of it, so I can't vouch for the close-up, directly-underneath view).
The big screen was complemented by something I've noticed elsewhere - in the two years I was out of the country most stadiums seem to have replaced the runs/hits/errors lighted scoreboards that used to sit somewhere on a narrow front of the upper seating decks with similarly narrow video screens. The screens show the scoreboard info during the action, and advertising or promotional info between innings.
The gadget-geek in me loves the high-def screens and video boards. The baseball purist in me isn't sure what to think - the old light boards weren't particularly aestheticly pleasing. As long as Fenway doesn't replace it's hand-operated board (and at least a few of the new parks keep their hand-operated out-of-town scoreboards as an homage) I can't think of a reason to decry the change.